Plastic is forever

There are more than 50 different groups of plastics and hundreds of different varieties – an estimated 113 billion kilos of raw plastic pellets are produced from petroleum feedstock, worldwide, every year.

Plastic bags, no thanks!

• The world uses an estimated one million plastic bags every minute; 150 bags per year for every person on earth.1

• The Canadian province of Ontario banned plastic bags from government liquor stores in 2008 resulting in 80 million fewer bags being used yearly.2

• China banned plastic bags in 2008 following the lead of Hong Kong. Bangladesh was the first country in the South to ban them in 2002. Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, Taiwan and Botswana followed suit.3

• Ireland introduced a plastic bag tax in 2002. Within a few months the number of bags handed out at supermarkets had dropped by 90%.1

• It takes about 11 barrels of oil to make one ton of plastic bags. Before the ban, China used more plastic bags than any other country and wasted 37 million barrels of oil on them every year. 4

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Sea of plastic

• Plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds yearly as well as 100,000 marine mammals.

• Plastic makes up 60-80% of all garbage floating in the oceans. Every square km of ocean contains 13,000-18,000
pieces of plastic.5

The plastic industry has adopted a numbering system to identify basic plastic resins. In a classic example of ‘greenwashing’ the numbers 1-7 are framed within the ‘chasing arrows’ recycling symbol, thus assuring consumers they can be recycled – which is often not the case.

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Toxic trio

These chemicals are found in thousands of common household items and have been linked to birth defects, learning disabilities, cancers, liver damage and reproductive problems.

Phthalates – compounds used to soften plastics, notably PVC. In everything from shower curtains, paint, pesticides and children’s toys to vinyl flooring, IV bags and hospital tubing. Also in hundreds of personal-care products like perfume, body lotion, nail polish, shampoo and air fresheners.

BPA (bisphenol A) – basic constituent of polycarbonate plastic, the hard durable plastic used to make re-usable, ‘sports’ water bottles, large ‘water cooler’ bottles, baby bottles, dental sealants, the lining in canned food and some drink containers, CDs and DVDs. First produced as synthetic estrogen – 2.7 billion kilos are now produced yearly.

• Every study backed by the industry has found that low-dose exposure to BPA poses no risks. Of the 160 non-industry studies, 90% have detected harmful effects including hormone-related illnesses and cancer.13

Consumers play a huge and critical part when it concerns plastic. This is because, retail makes up the biggest percentage of business that uses a huge amount of plastic daily. Thus, consumers need to really co-operate well in order to practice the 3Rs which are the reduce, reuse and recycle whenever possible. They need to reject plastic carriers should a shop offer them one and bring their own recyclable bag whenever possible. This is one of the many simple steps we can try to achieve first before proceeding to other more impactful ones.

Since independence in 1966, Botswana’s annual growth rates have been the highest in the world – bar none. It is estimated that were it not for the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, growth rates would be one or two per cent higher today.

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